The Worldwide Movement in Private Universities: Revolutionary Growth in Post-Secondary Higher Education

The end of the Cold War, which resulted from the collapse of communism and the spread of free market ideas in the former Soviet Union, China, and nations in Eastern Europe, has brought about many dramatic and momentous changes on the world scene. One remarkable development not widely recognized outside specialized academic circles is the emergence of new institutions of higher learning in the private sector of previously command economies and also in many developing countries that had been wedded to a culture of socialism for decades. The “privatization” of higher education is by all accounts a global phenomenon. Very few systematic studies of these new trends in private post‐secondary education exist to date, although the impact of this development could be far‐reaching not only for higher education but also for the social and economic development of many societies in the world. In this paper we attempt to analyze the phenomenon of new private universities in non‐Western nations, focusing on the developing world in general, and Asia in particular. What missions have these institutions chosen? Which models are these institutions following? What challenges do they face? How are they coping with their relationship to existing public universities? How are they dealing with tuition and budgetary issues? What sources of funding are they tapping into? How are they dealing with issues of equity, excellence, and access? In the composition of their faculty, student body, and curriculum, are these institutions sufficiently international? How are the funding institutions and universities in the West helping these fledgling universities? Are these trends expected to accelerate in the future? We attempt to answer these questions within the context of a few case studies that reflect the breadth and diversity of this revolutionary growth in post‐secondary higher education.